1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to internal combustion engine crankcase lubricant removal, specifically, but not limited to, marine inboard internal combustion engines, using a separate internal combustion engine as means of a vacuum source.
2. Description of Prior Art
An internal combustion engine that is mounted inside of a recreational boat is called a marine inboard engine. These engines are of the same basic design of automotive engines, some of the internal parts are retrofitted to accept the marine environment that boats and the inboard internal combustion engines are subject to.
When a 4, 6, or 8 cylinder, four cycle engine is mounted inside of a boat, the crankcase oil pan is set low in the boat hull. Due to the low center of gravity mounting of the engine in the boat hull, the drain plug is nearly impossible to use or if you can access the drain plug it is very messy when you drain the oil. The oil runs all through the inside of the boat hull. Due to the low engine mounting, you can not place a drain receptacle or pan under it. The spent oil is to drain out through the hull drain plug in the back of the boat. After a day of water activities on a lake, river, or ocean the boat is loaded on to a boat trailer. At this time as a normal practice of boating, the hull drain plug is removed to drain out any water that has penetrated the inside of the boat's hull. When this procedure is performed the oil film that has accumulated in the bottom of the boat hull from conventional oil removal servicing runs out on the ground or down the launching ramp and into the water. This is environmentally unacceptable.
To remedy this, marine inboard engine manufacturers have manufactured into the marine inboard engines dipstick tube that is used to check the oil level in the crankcase of the engine, a threaded male end of a garden hose type fitting on the top end of the tube itself, to remove the oil through the dipstick tube itself. The tube extends to the bottom of the crankcase oil pan to be used with the purpose of using some type of suction or siphon system to pull the oil up the tube for removal.
Prior arts try to take advantage of this oil removal system, such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,148,785 to Sendak (1992) and U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,469 to Liu (1991) using an electric 12 volt motor to pump the oil out of the crankcase through the dipstick tube. The Boat/US 1996 Annual Equipment Catalog, page 174, shows other prior arts using 110 volt electric drill to drive a handheld pump and another uses a slide pump similar to a bicycle tire pump. This pump is attached to a reservoir and creates a vacuum in a container to receive the spent oil. U.S. Pat. No. 3,743,053 (1973) to Kuklewicz has a 12 volt electric motorized pump. The electric motor is attached to the engine itself and the suction hose removes the oil from the oil pan by connecting a hose to the drain plug on the bottom of the pan. Nevertheless, all dipstick tube oil removal systems heretofore known suffer from a number of disadvantages:
(a) A hose connected to the bottom of the oil drain plug raises concern, the safety valve supplied by a prior art connected to the drain plug to which the hose is connected to can easily be turned. That is why manufacturers of automotive and marine internal combustion engines do not supply such valves, instead they equip the drain plugs with a threaded plug that requires a wrench to remove it, (they don't want the liability claims). The engine vibrating while in operation can cause either the hose to rub on any object(s) in the engine compartment and leaking oil out of the motor, or electrical wire rubbing on engine compartment object(s) causing a circuit to short out and start pumping out oil and not know it until it is too late and the engine seizes up.
(b) All of these prior arts have moving mechanical parts and seals. As a common fact any device that has moving parts will wear out at any given time. Most of these prior arts when purchased, have a parts list of seals and motor replacement parts to replace worn or damaged parts.
(c) Most vacuum oriented prior arts require close surveillance of the device while removing the oil and some require hands-on operation of the pump while in use, or manual manipulation of the pump while in use.
(d) Of these prior arts on average, the time span for drawing the oil from the crankcase takes from 3-10 minutes.
(e) When disconnecting the prior arts fittings from the dipstick tube, oil laying in the hose connected to the dipstick tube will run down the outside of the tube when removed from the tube, causing more of a mess to try to cleanup in the boat's hull.
(f) Marine internal combustion engines are equipped with special electrical wiring to eliminate a spark to minimize the risk of igniting gasoline vapors that reside in the engine compartment causing fatal or serious personal injury. Some prior arts use 12 volt electric motors with battery spring clamps connecting these motors to the batteries located in the engine compartment which may spark and cause an explosion.